My esteemed employer behaved in a similar manner. Like many American companies, it once maintained a BlackBerry Enterprise Server to manage employees’ BlackBerry handsets. Top news staffers were issued the devices.

Yet, like many American companies, the Pioneer Press discarded that server. As all this was happening relatively simultaneously around the country, sales tanked and the devices’ maker hemorrhaged market share.

BlackBerry, once a mighty force in the mobile-phone industry and in the business world, is now flirting with irrelevance.

Yet a funny thing happened this month. BlackBerry released a new phone dubbed the Z10 — and I am excited about it. I couldn’t wait to see the iPhone-like, touch-screen device. I’m also stoked about another model, the Q10, which has a more BlackBerry traditional physical keyboard that’s due later this year.

The Z10 and Q10 are part of BlackBerry’s latest planned comeback after a couple of others in recent years never amounted to much. It has put a lot of work into the handsets and an overhauled mobile operating system called BlackBerry 10.

It shows. The Z10 is gorgeous. It looks much like the iPhone 5 but is slightly thicker, wider and longer. It also takes design cues from Android handsets, particularly HTC models. None of this can be accidental — BlackBerry wants its clientele, even those who have since turned their love elsewhere, to feel instantly at home with its new phone.

I did. The screen is lovely. The back has a rubbery, textured feel that other handset makers should imitate.

Overall, the slab-like handset with rounded corners is just large enough to set itself apart from the iPhone, which is starting to feel a bit too compact and cramped, yet is easier to wield in one hand than the gigantic handsets being released by the likes of Samsung. It is just right.

Firing up a loaner Z10, I experienced little confusion as I found my way around the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Everything made sense.

BlackBerry 10 has multiple screens replete with app icons, just like Apple and Android, and the apps can be organized into folders, just like the competition. Neatnik that I am, I wasted no time in reorganizing everything so it would fit on a single screen, then heaved a sigh of relief.

A separate screen on the left, accessed by swiping to the right, shows open or active apps in the form of bigger rectangles — up to eight at one time. Any of these can be dismissed with a tap.

Swiping again, I found myself in the BlackBerry Hub. It is my fave BB10 feature, consisting of my latest emails, text messages, social-network updates, app notifications, calls and the like — all blended into a single chronological stream for easy scanning.

If I just wanted to see my calls, emails or Facebook updates, I swiped yet again to pick any of these categories from a list.

Other gesture options include swiping up from the bottom to minimize the current app or service screen and swiping down from the top to see system or app settings.

All of this is all very clean and well thought out.

BlackBerrys are famous for their physical keyboards, so “crackberry” addicts — they’re still out there — can be forgiven for regarding the Z10’s touchscreen keyboard with suspicion.

It has interesting tweaks, though, like words that autocomplete and can be finger-flicked into position for faster and more accurate typing. At least that’s the claim: I don’t know that I typed any faster in the short time I used the Z10 than I do on an iPhone or Android handset.

The Z10’s browser is one of the best I’ve seen on a mobile device. It rendered perfectly almost all of the pages I threw at it.

BlackBerry also opted to sweat the details on its camera app, which is replete with editing options and Instagram-like filters, super-fast performance, burst and stabilization modes, even a choice of aspect ratios. It strikes a balance between the too-minimalist iPhone camera app and the overly complicated and feature-laden camera apps on the latest Samsung handsets.

The camera’s marquee feature: The ability to select among faces in group shots so everyone has their eyes open. This is a nifty bit of time travel.

The Z10 shoots 1080p video via its rear camera, too.

The maps app has turn-by-turn navigation and other essential features, but is a bit of a letdown overall now that I’ve been spoiled rotten by the elegant, feature-replete Google Maps apps on Android and iPhone.

BlackBerry 10 has built-in support for Dropbox online file storage and Evernote notes access, which is a nice touch. Twitter and Facebook support also is on board — but I can’t manage multiple Twitter accounts, and the third-party apps for this purpose are disappointing.

Selection in the BlackBerry World app store is lousy, overall. I found a variety of essential apps, ranging from YouTube and AccuWeather to FourSquare for location check-ins, Buffer for multi-account social sharing and TuneIn Radio for radio-station and podcast consumption.

But so many apps are absent. Glaring omissions include Pocket, Instagram and Flipboard. Also missing are top audio apps like iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify and Stitcher, as well as leading video apps such as HBO Go, Hulu+ and Netflix.

For this reason, I see few iPhone and Android users migrating to BlackBerry. And while the Z10 and Q10 might seem like salvation to BlackBerry stalwarts (see accompanying article), many of them may grow impatient if app choice doesn’t improve.

I’ve said it before: It’s all about the apps.

Without these, the hardware and operating software don’t matter. So while BlackBerry has taken an initial step in releasing devices that are modern to the core, it still has a lot of work to do if it wants to hold on to core users and eventually draw new ones.

BlackBerry said it’s on the right track, announcing last week that it had hit 100,000 apps in the BlackBerry World store, with many more — including marquee names like eBay, MLB at Bat, Rdio and Skype — to come.

Julio's Pioneer Press duties include writing, often about tech, and helping manage its website and social media. He also futzes with virtual-reality cameras and other tech tools for journalistic purposes. In his spare time, Julio writes for the TidBITS Apple-news site, where he is a contributing editor. See his blog at ojezap.com.

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